Zilla Panchayat President Katpadi Shankar Poojary said that the ZP has implemented scores of development programmes in the district during 2011-12 giving priority to the issues like water supply, roads, housing and basic infrastructure facilities.

Speaking to media persons, he said that the ZP has taken approval from the government for the proposals of water supply programmes worth Rs 3632.64 lakhs. As many as 550 water supply projects along with two multi-village drinking water schemes and 246 water source rejuvenation projects have been initiated.

“Measures have been taken at Gram Panchayat level to eradicate scarcity of water in the district. As many as three proposals from Kundapur and seven proposals from Udupi worth Rs 45.50 crores and Rs 53.13 crores respectively have been sent to the Government for approval under multi-village drinking water scheme,” he said adding that arrangements have been made to repair the existing roads and create new roads wherever it is necessary.

“As many as 419 work are taken up at the cost of Rs 931.86 lakhs. A sum of Rs 355.56 has been allotted under Chief Minister Rural Road Development Programmes and Rs 576.30 lakh has been released under 13th Finance Commission for road maintenance programmes. Under special allocations that are made under Chief Minister Rural Road Development Programme, 109 road development projects have been initiated at the cost of Rs 546 lakhs,” he said.

Poojary informed that tender has been called for 257 road development work following the approval for the action plan from the government. About 38.95 crore has been earmarked for the purpose.

“Government has allotted Rs one crore each to ZP President and Taluk Panchyats to take up renovation work of rural stretches. About 2.49 lakhs fingerlings have been supplied at a cost of Rs two lakhs and four lakh has been distributed to 43 beneficiaries under Matsyavahini Scheme to purchase vehicles for trading fishes, Poojary informed.

As many as Rs 12.74 crores worth development projects have been initiated under first and second phase of Suvarna Gramodaya Yojana. About 7,964 beneficiaries have been allotted houses under Basava Vasati Yojana, of which 941 houses have been completed and remaining are under construction.

A total of Rs 37 lakhs has been released for Public Instruction Department to take up as many as 55 repair works of school buildings. As many as 18 classrooms are constructed at the cost of Rs 61.80 lakhs. As many as 800 beneficiaries are given benefits under Janani Surakhsa Yojana at the cost of Rs 69.81 lakhs.

HUBLI: Macchalli village, 22 km from Karwar, is loaded with tourism potential. But poor infrastructure and indifference by the authorities has kept this village out of reach of tourists.

The village falls under Amadalli gram panchayat area and lies amidst thick forest. About 14 families of Padthi and Halakki Okkaliga communities are residing in this village. It is about 1,500 feet above sea level. One has to transverse through the boulders and tough terrain to reach this village. Villagers are mainly into agriculture.

They grow paddy, groundnut, sugarcane and vegetables. "The stream in the village is a boon for us,'' says Ganapati, a villager. The main complaint of the villagers is that they are a neglected lot. "During monsoon life is hell,'' says Usha, a housewife. "The stream overflows during the monsoon and students have to climb down the hill to reach Amadalli School." After repeated requests, a lower primary school was opened in the village, reveals Usha.The last time a local leader visited their village was during elections. " After that we have never hear from any of them, " said a villagers who did not want to be identified.

Zilla panchayat officials say that they have taken up the construction of a kuccha road in the village under MGNREGA scheme. "Once it is completed the problem of the villagers should ease," an official said indicating that as the population in the village is less, the ZP is reluctant to spend money because public representatives want the money to be diverted to densely- populated villages. The area is a trekker's paradise. Villagers are keen that the government tap its tourism potential.

Firm partners with 3,500 farmers to source tomatoes; aims to make India an export hub for some farm products

Mumbai: Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL), India’s largest consumer packaged goods company, has formed partnerships with 3,500 farmers in Karnataka and Punjab to grow tomatoes for the company’s Kissan ketchup in a bid to sharpen focus on its foods business and promote sustainable agriculture in the country.

Agriculture and forestry being a large part of its raw materials, HUL believes that sustainable sourcing is important for its business and brands while sourcing locally from India would give it better control on quality and supply.

“Over the last three-four years, we have moved from virtually 100% imported tomato paste to probably importing less than 20% today,” said Pradeep Banerjee, executive director of supply chain at HUL. “Our business is growing. As Unilever, we are very large consumers of tomato and tomato paste. The Indian farmer will have competition from Latin America and Eastern Europe. Today, we procure 40,000 tonnes of tomato. This will go up in time.”

Even as HUL is increasingly replacing tomato imports from China, it is also exporting some farm products from India. For instance, HUL grows gherkins in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka exclusively for exports.
This is the first time that the maker of Surf detergents, Lux soap and Knorr soups has invested in a programme to grow and source agricultural produce in India, a move that signals a stronger thrust and commitment to its foods portfolio, according to analysts.

“Partnerships ensure stability of supply and consistency of supply. It is a relatively common practice with large food and beverage companies that are committed to the foods business in India,” said Ramesh Srinivas, a partner at KPMG. “This signals a fairly large thrust on foods.”

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Mint’s Sapna Agarwal says HUL has partnered with farmers in Karnataka and Punjab to grow tomatoes for its Kissan Kethcup product

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Processed foods, which include Knorr and Kissan food brands, accounted for 4.6% of HUL’s Rs. 19,401 crore revenue for the fiscal year ending March 2011.

For the parent Unilever Plc, foods is the second-largest business accounting for €14 billion of its €46.5 billion revenue in 2011.

HUL’s strategy involves setting up a team led by a senior agronomist along with five dedicated scientists and procurement specialists who will inspect fields and audit crops.

The procurement of tomatoes is done through vendors who buy the tomatoes after they are plucked and then process and convert them into pulp.

The company has also put in place an integrated agriculture practice wherein it guarantees purchase of the crop from the farmer, provided the farmer implements its bundle of services which includes buying from verified seed agencies, allowing audits and ensuring that HUL’s recommended practices for cultivating a sustainable crop are implemented.

“We have put in place best practices that reduce wastage, and improve realization. We have doubled the yield per acre,” said Banerjee, adding that unlike potatoes and onions, tomatoes have a very short shelf life and need to be processed as soon as they are plucked.

Sustainable sourcing of agri-produce from India is a part of the global “Unilever Sustainable Living Plan” launched in November 2010 that aims to globally purchase all its fruits and vegetable requirements from sustainable sources by 2015.

More than 16% of the tea sourced from India in 2011 was from sustainable sources, claims the company in a “Unilever Sustainable Living Plan: India” document posted on its website. It also claims to be committed to sourcing all of its palm oil requirements from sustainable sources by 2015. Unilever is one of the largest buyers of palm oil in the world, as well as in India.

The company is looking at Nashik in Maharashtra for other fruits and vegetables like banana, guava and pears which are used to make Kissan jams. “We are expanding both geographically as well as getting into newer crops as well,” said Ramesh Krishnamurthy, procurement operations director–South Asia at parent Unilever.

In the past, foods and beverage companies such as PepsiCo India Holdings Pvt. Ltd and McDonald’s made similar investments.

McDonald’s India and its suppliers, for instance, started investing in its unique supply chain six years prior to it being set up in India in 1996. Currently, McDonald’s India (West and South) has more than 40-50 suppliers. The company and its suppliers have invested Rs. 400 crore till date in such initiatives.

The crops produced by McDonald’s suppliers are potatoes, lettuce, tomatoes and onions in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. The company procures approximately 1,440 tonnes of fresh iceberg lettuce and 30,000 tonnes of potatoes from its suppliers.

“McDonald’s India has a presence of more than 250 restaurants serving more than 650,000 customers a day in India, we plan on doubling the number of restaurants by 2014 and therefore the number of customers we serve will increase by 2-3 times the current number. To accommodate these robust expansion plans McDonald’s and its supplier will need to expand and increase by double by 2014,” said Smita Jatia, managing director of Hardcastle Restaurants Pvt. Ltd, the franchise for McDonald’s India in the west and south.

Similarly, PepsiCo, which entered India in 1989, took up collaborative farming in 2004-05 to grow potatoes. It sources close to 50%, or 250,000 tonnes, of its total potato requirements through such initiatives.

“We currently work with 24,000 farmers in nine states and have plans to add another 6,000 farmers this year,” said Jaideep Bhatia, vice-president agronomy, PepsiCo.

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Fact of the week:BEML rolls out country’s biggest dump truck-Indigenously designed & developed by BEML MYSORE

BANGALORE APRIL 18:
Karnataka will implement modified National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) in 20 taluks in five districts.

NRLM is a poverty-alleviating scheme formulated by the Union Government. The state government has renamed it as ‘Sanjeevini'.

“Karnataka has tweaked the mission to include social, financial and economic inclusion while rolling out the scheme in the districts,” said Ms Amita Prasad, Principal Secretary, Karnataka Rural Development and Panchayat Raj department.

“Under Sanjeevini, instead of giving an allocation, we plan to follow a demand-driven strategy to allocate funds. This strategy facilitates state government to independently form its own process for poverty alleviation,” she added.

The Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) was launched by the Union government in 1999 with a focus on self employment programme through mobilisation of people in below poverty line (BPL).

It did not succeed in fully alleviating poverty. It is in this context, the Ministry of rural development decided to restructure the SGSY into NRLM.

Mr Jagadish Shettar, State Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, said “The state government has decided to implement Sanjeevini in a phased manner by covering 20 taluks every year and cover the entire state in 5-7 years.

“With a budget of Rs 120 crore for this year, we plan to take up the first phase, where in 20 taluks in five districts will be covered,” he added.

The following are the districts in phase I roll out of Sanjeevini in the state: Belgaum (Athani, Gokak, Soundatti and Hukkeri), Dharwad (Khalgatgi, Kundagol and Navalgund) Gulbarga (Gulbarga, Jewargi, Sedam and Aland), Mysore (H D Kote, Hunsur, Nanjangud and T Narsipura) and Tumkur (Gubbi, Kunigal, Madhugiri, Pavagada and Korategere.

Ms Prasad said “For effective roll out and implementation of the scheme, we are planning to offer entrepreneurship training through rural development self employment training (Rudset) institutes and also take assistances of self help groups and NGOs.

“Sanjeevini will also undertake programmes for enhancing existing livelihood options for the poor, build skill sets to suite the job market and also nurture self-employment. The scheme will help facilitate formation of federations at district levels to market their produce in bigger cities,” she added.

According to Dr K.G. Jagadeesh, Mission Director, Sanjeevini, “The state government is planning to conduct a detail survey of BPL families and their current status. It is mainly a livelihood profiling exercise at the gram panchayat and zilla panchyat level.

“Based on the survey, intervention measures will be formulated and tailored to the needs of the BPL families at grass root level,” he added.

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Fact of the week:BEML rolls out country’s biggest dump truck-Indigenously designed & developed by BEML MYSORE

MANGALORE, APRIL 18:
A Karnataka-based NGO is one among eight finalists for the UK-based green energy prize, the Ashden Awards.

Shri Kshethra Dharmasthala Rural Development Project (SKDRDP) at Dharmasthala in Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka has been selected as a finalist.

Other finalists are from Peru, Indonesia, Cambodia, the Philippines, Africa and Afghanistan.

A press release said here that the finalists will compete for over £1,20,000 prize money. The winners will be announced in London on May 30.

It said that SKDRDP provides affordable loans to families in its area, helping them buy renewable energy systems that improve their quality of life.

The SKDRDP-promoted self-help groups help people make informed choices on what energy products they buy.

It said that SKDRDP has so far provided nearly 20,000 energy loans.

Quoting the Founder-Director of Ashden, Ms Sarah Butler-Sloss, the release said: “Ensuring the poor have access to finance for sustainable energy technology will be a key factor in achieving the UN's goal of ensuring universal access to modern energy services by 2030.

“SKDRDP is a perfect example of how an organisation, which encourages people to take responsibility for their finances, can play a major role towards achieving this aim.”

The release also said that in this International Year for Sustainable Energy for All, the finalists are leading the way in showing how progress on cutting carbon can go hand-in-hand with improving livelihoods, empowering women and improving health and education outcomes.

“We are committed to helping our winners grow even further and sharing the lessons they have learned so they can be replicated far and wide,” Ms Sarah Butler-Sloss said.

The Ashden Awards were founded in 2001 to encourage the greater use of local sustainable energy to address climate change and alleviate poverty. Since then award winners have improved the lives of 33 million people worldwide, the release said.

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Fact of the week:BEML rolls out country’s biggest dump truck-Indigenously designed & developed by BEML MYSORE

Residents of the drought-hit Gummagol village in Navalgund taluk have some reason to cheer about.

The Gummagol Gram Panchayat, comprising villages such as Gummagol and Byalal, has won the Rashtriya Gaurav Gram Sabha Puraskar of the Union Ministry of Panchayat Raj.

Purse

Gram Panchayat president Basavaraj Ireshnavar received the award, which includes a purse of Rs. 13 lakh, at a function in New Delhi on Tuesday.

It is the only gram panchayat in the Belgaum division to win this award.

The award is in recognition of ensuring 100 per cent tax collection, providing toilets to 95 per cent households, maintenance of public toilets, a model waste collection system and utilisation of solar power for streetlights.

Model panchayat

Located 32 km away from Dharwad, Gummagol has emerged as a model gram panchayat in all respects.

Mr. Ireshnavar said the combined efforts of elected representatives, officials and village residents had made it possible.

As many as 493 houses in Gummagol and 297 houses in Byalal had toilets, Mr. Ireshnavar said .

The gram panchayat had set a 100 per cent target in the coming days, Mr. Ireshnavar said.

Awareness

The garbage collection system and the awareness among residents on sanitation is a model even for city residents.

Indiscriminate disposal of waste, a common scene in Hubli-Dharwad, is a rarity here.

People dump the waste in garbage containers set up at specific locations.

The gram panchayat had won the Rajat Nairmalya award in 2007-08.

Gummagol village in Navalgund taluk is

facing drought

Award is in recognition of ensuring 100 p.c. tax collection, providing toilets among other things

Large technology companies have a clear target group in mind when they design initiatives to promote entrepreneurship. Start-ups that engage in these programmes are typically led by founders set on building the next big technology service product. But not Vanajakshi Raveendra Lokhande, the owner of a small business that makes pickles and noodles in the north Karnataka district of Bagalkot.

Lokhande, once a manual labourer, was trained by global technology major Hewlett Packard to set up her small business. From partnering with pickle makers, baking units, coaching institutes and also technology start-ups, global firms such as Hewlett-Packard (HP), Google and Microsoft are digging deep into the bottom of the pyramid level as they seek to gain a greater foothold in the small and medium businesses space in the country.

"It is a win-win situation for both, as these programmes help us identify new opportunities in emerging markets and build strategies and solutions around that," said Jeannette Weisschuh, who leads Hewlett Packard's entrepreneurship and education initiatives. Lokhande's husband was a daily worker and their monthly income was Rs 2,000. Now she earns ten times that amount as a business owner.

For HP, these are gateways to create demand across nearly 35 million small and medium businesses in India. According to experts such as Deepa Mani, assistant professor of information systems at Indian School of Business, these strategies help tech majors create entirely new value chains and innovations to tap bottom-of-the-pyramid markets. "These are huge markets, but companies cannot just walk into these markets and start doing business," she explained.

Grassroots Connect

HP, the world's largest computer-maker, through its 'HP Life' programme, provides information technology, financial management and marketing tools to entrepreneurs and small business to establish and grow. Chaya Umesh Chandra from Karnataka, who makes life-sized wax models of famous Indians like Mahatma Gandhi, was also trained by HP Life programme.

Like Lokhande, she also lacked basic computer skills, but now markets her products across the internet and exports her products to markets such as Bhutan, Maldives, Nigeria and Sri Lanka.

Her business has increased almost two-fold and she now earns over Rs 60,000 a month. HP has provided support to 2,400 new businesses and helped around 3,500 existing business to increase their revenues through this programme.

Small Business Programmes

Sin-A-Mon, a Bangalore-based boutique baking start-up, was set up in October last year by Monika Manchanda. The customers for her home-based unit were mostly friends and family.

The start-up now reaches over 3,500 people due to support by Google, the world's biggest internet search-engine. Google provides technology support to entrepreneurs such as Manchanda, which includes building website and reaching out to new customers.

"Use of technology has helped build my credibility in the cafe and restaurant space," said Manchanda, owner of Sin-A-Mon, who also organises basic baking workshops for children and adults, which involve bread baking, making pastry, pie and other desserts. "We started this programme because we have observed a tremendous demand for local business searches, which has grown by 140% year-on-year," said Nikhil Rungta, country marketing head for Google India. He said that within six months after the launch of their programme, around 75,000 businesses have jumped on their platform.

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Fact of the week:BEML rolls out country’s biggest dump truck-Indigenously designed & developed by BEML MYSORE

Efforts are on to convince sugarcane growers and sugar factory representatives to go in for mechanisation in view of the scarce labour and rising cost in Karnataka’s sugar bowl, Mandya, and other sugarcane-growing districts of the state.

Technicians from New Holland and John Deere Pvt Ltd, India participated in a recent workshop and presented their machineries available to suit Indian condition for harvesting of sugarcane.

They also elaborated on these harvesters working in different states in India and their present status.
The occasion was a workshop on ‘Mechanical Harvesting in Sugarcane: Hurdles & Remedies’, organised by Bharat Ratna Sir M Visvesvaraya Sugarcane Research Institute (MVSRI), Mandya, in Mysore. The workshop was attended by representatives of sugar factories in Karnataka.

Due to an increased shortage of labour for cane harvesting, the need for introducing mechanical harvester for sugarcane is becoming vital. Mechanical harvesters will help cane farmers and sugar industry to achieve better results and cut costs.

The workshop discussed the wider row plantation and sub-surface irrigation in sugarcane. It was felt that sugarcane can be planted without compromising the cane yield even up to 4 to 5 feet row distance which suits cane harvesters.

Nagarajappa, Chairman, My Sugar Co. Ltd, Mandya suggested manufactures of harvesting machinery to modify their harvesters as to suit to the Southern conditions of cane growing. R T Patil, Chairman of Karnatak Co-Operative Sugar Factories, Bangalore, observed the need was to work out cheaper and viable harvesting machines to cut cane which would be to the advantage of sugarcane growers. This would help them reduce dependency on manual labour.

“The over-dependence on labour is leading to exploitation of cane growers,” said Patel, V N Associate Director of Research, V C Farm, Mandya.

Munaguli of Maddur explained that wetland in South Karnataka was a major constraint and hence this issue along with smaller holdings required to be sorted out too.

R B Khandagave, MVSRI Director, mentioned that mill owners often experienced loss of huge amounts advanced to the harvesting labourers due to unhealthy practices by the latter. Additionally, farmers were asked to pay extra charges by the harvesting labourers especially during summer months and when there is abundant cane. Hence, the workshop was organised to deliberate on mechanical harvesting in sugarcane, to share on the hurdles faced by the sugar mills in adopting mechanical harvesting in sugarcane and practical solutions to these problems, including analysing its economics, he said.

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Fact of the week:BEML rolls out country’s biggest dump truck-Indigenously designed & developed by BEML MYSORE

NEW DELHI, MAY 8:
The Rajya Sabha discussed the severe drought situation in Karnataka and in States such as Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.

Replying to a motion to call the attention of the Government to the issue, the Minister of State for Agriculture, Mr Harish Rawat, said the Government is trying to monitor the effects of climate change on agriculture. He said all possible efforts are being done to address the drought situation.

Dissatisfied over his reply, the Opposition BJP walked out of the Upper House.

Earlier, initiating the debate BJP leader Mr Venkaiah Naidu said the Centre is not taking enough steps to address the problems, despite an all party delegation's meeting with the Prime Minister on the issue.

CPI(M) MP Mr Tapan Sen said more capital investment is needed to improve the situation in the agriculture sector. He said well-producing States are also facing problems, particularly in storage.

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Fact of the week:BEML rolls out country’s biggest dump truck-Indigenously designed & developed by BEML MYSORE

The mobile hospital unit which was started by Dharmasthala Dharmadhikari D Veerendra Heggade in the year 1974, to provide health care to the rural population, is completing its 28th year this year.

A view of mobile hospital unit in Dharmasthala.The main objective of the mobile unit is to reach the interior villages like Patrame, Didupe, Neriya and Naravi to provide them with health care information, bring awareness about health care and offer them the primary health service.

The unit diagnoses the patients and treats them free of cost. As many as 25,556 patients in Belthangady, Puttur, Sullia and Karkal taluks have been treated this year alone.

The mobile hospital unit also organises health camps in association with other organisations and gram panchayats in three villages within 40 km radius.

The unit travels throughout for about two months, for three days in a week. The aid is provided from 9 am to 4 pm. On an average, 5,000 people are treated in a month and Dharmasthala Trust spends around Rs 10 lakh a year for the purpose which includes the payment to the staff, medical expenses etc.

The unit also has been trying to bring health awareness among the rural population in the form of pamphlets, media publications, street shows etc. The unit has proved to be a boon for the rural people who are otherwise deprived of medical facilities.

Dr K S Jagadeesh has served as the Chief Medical Officer during the initial days and the post is now handled by Dr Narayan Prabhu.

Only six districts have met target of building toilets for all APL, BPL households

The practice of open defecation continues to be a major health hazard in rural areas of the State.

Although the State has performed well in the implementation of the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) since it got under way in 2001 — 70.88 per cent of APL and BPL households have individual toilets — a disturbing fact came to light during a study conducted by the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department. Only 30 per cent of the toilets were being used by people.

The six districts

Only six districts have achieved the target of building toilets for all above poverty line (APL) and below poverty line (BPL) households. As per the latest data available with The Hindu , all households in Bangalore Rural, Chikmagalur, Kolar, Dakshina Kannada, Shimoga and Udupi have individual toilets.

In districts such as Raichur, Gulbarga, Chitradurga, Bijapur, Bidar, and Bellary, less than 60 per cent of the households have toilets.

The performance of Raichur is abysmal with only 22.11 per cent households covered under the campaign, in Bijapur it is 42.22 per cent and in Gulbarga 44.72 per cent.

BPL households

The performance of the State with regard to construction of toilets for BPL households, to whom the Union government provides subsidy of Rs. 3,700 per toilet, is average.

In as many as 10 districts, less than 60 per cent of BPL households have been covered.

So far, 20.08 lakh BPL households have been covered under the campaign against the target of 28.28 lakh.

Raichur ranked last in the State with only 26.30 per cent of BPL households having toilets, followed by Bijapur with 38.65 per cent, Belgaum (51.42), Bidar (58.82), Bellary (55.23), Chamarajanagar (54.92), Gulbarga (55.76), Haveri (56.77), Mysore (59.75) and Tumkur with 54.86 per cent.

Proposal sent

Meanwhile, the State government has updated the figures of BPL households without toilets and has submitted the revised list to the Union government for additional assistance under the TSC.

The Ministry of Rural Development is yet to accept the proposal.

Only 22.11 per cent of both APL and BPL households are covered in Raichur district